The gay community-board chairman running for City Council this year
tried to hide his past work for corporate clients that have opposed
marriage equality, The Post has learned. Corey Johnson, 31, who
is in the race for Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s seat, proudly
portrays himself as a trailblazer for gay rights [...]But from 2008 to 2010, he served as director of government and
community affairs at Wall Street-based real-estate firm GFI Development
Co. — a fact that was left off his site. GFI and some of its
brass have spent more than $30,000 backing candidates who oppose gay
marriage [...]

Johnson also says he’s a champion of affordable housing [...] “I did work for them, but I no longer work for them currently,” Johnson said about GFI.

Much, if not all, of this info seems to have originated from reporting blogger Seth Barron posted on June 13 at his City Council Watch site, reporting which included many links to source documents. Barron shed much light on this firm and their anti-tenant activities, and Johnson's work for the firm:

GFI Development buys old buildings and turns them into
hotels, condominiums and the like. Corey
Johnson’s job was to facilitate the political side of things, as we see in this
June 2009 article detailing his advocacy on behalf of a GFI development before
Community Board 2 in Brooklyn.

In 2008, around when they hired Corey to be their front man
in New York City, GFI Development bought the old Breslin Hotel, on 29th
Street, which was an SRO. Their efforts
to evict or buy out the existing tenants led to a series of court battles, but
eventually the Breslin gave way to the trendy Ace Hotel. Corey Johnson had his birthday party there
when it opened in 2010, and was so delighted that he even wore a tiara,
according to this record of the evening.

I'm glad to see Barron's City Council Watch and the NY Post are keeping tabs on Johnson, and expect to see more sunshining of the candidate as the race for the District 3 City Council seat progresses to the fall primary. Oh, and the NY Post should have properly credited Seth Barron for his investigative reporting.